In the processing of baker's dough, an accepted method of forming dough balls of consistent size and density is to move baker's dough with a stuffing pump through a dough separator manifold, and then move the separated streams of dough from the dough separator manifold through a dough delivery block. The dough moving in separate streams through the dough delivery block is continually divided into balls of dough by moving divider blades across the openings of the dough delivery block to sever the leading ends of the streams of dough protruding from the dough delivery block. The cut balls of dough are allowed to fall to the surface conveyor of the rounder bar assembly positioned below the dough delivery block.
Prior art rounder bar systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,008,025 and 4,306,850.
With the above noted process, it is important that each stream of dough is maintained at equal density and moves at equal velocity. Thus, when the divider blades sweep in unison across the dough outlet openings of the dough divider block, balls of dough of equal weight will be formed.
One of the difficult functions of the foregoing process is to divide the dough balls from the ends of the dough streams and to deliver the dough balls simultaneously to the moving surface conveyor of the rounder bar assembly so that the dough balls are placed in aligned lateral rows on the conveyor. This is important because the dough balls, after moving in contact with the rounder bars, should be delivered to the awaiting pans in lateral lines, so that the dough balls as received in the pans are laterally aligned.
In some of the prior art divider systems, the dough balls tend to cling to the dough delivery block or other associated elements, which disrupts the timing of the dough balls as they are received on the surface conveyor system. In addition, some of these systems plow straight through the dough extrusion causing a tearing (vs. slicing) of the gluten strands at the exit surface of both the dough ball being formed and the front surface of the following dough ball. Since a tearing of the gluten strands (vs. slicing) can cause a failure of the cell structure to develop properly in later processing, this tearing action can cause imperfections in the final product and, in particular, on the surface of the baked out bun or loaf resulting in a degeneration in the perception of over-all quality.
Another problem of the prior art is that the construction and operation of the dough divider blades is somewhat complex, expensive and difficult to maintain. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,332,538 and 5,046,940 both show dough divider blades that have a complex motion where the blades pivot to move into contact with the dough delivery block, the blades then move in arcs downwardly across the dough outlet openings to sever the dough balls from the oncoming streams of dough, and then the blades pivot away from the oncoming streams of dough for movements in upward arcs for a return motion. These extra pivoting motions require linkages that must be manufactured and maintained. When the number of the dough streams to be divided is four, six, or eight streams, the linkages and movements of the prior art dough divider blades are cumbersome, and special structures have to be used to move the blades in unison so that the dough balls drop in timed relationship to the surface conveyor of rounder bar system. In addition, it is difficult to insure, with these systems, that the plunging blade is in imminent contact with the cut off block. Should any gap exist, then the gluten strand tearing problem referred to above is dramatically increased.
A further advantage of the slicing action of the blades that are a subject of the patent is that the slicing action tends to minimize dough contact with the slicing blade so that, once the dough piece is released from the cut off block, it will release easily from the cut off blade. In addition, the slicing action tends to impart a rounding effect on the trailing half of the dough piece, providing severed dough pieces that are almost round as they leave the cut off block. This result can be of great value if the dough balls were to be deposited directly from the cut off knife into baking pans.